Friday, October 08, 2010

More politicized science

Two examples:

The AP reports on the Obama administration's politicization of oil spill science:

The Obama administration blocked efforts by government scientists to tell the public just how bad the Gulf oil spill could become and committed other missteps that raised questions about its competence and candor during the crisis, according to a commission appointed by the president to investigate the disaster. [Emph. added]

The San Francisco Chronicle reports on the erroneous science used by California's Air Resources Board to justify more government regulation:

California grossly miscalculated pollution levels in a scientific analysis used to toughen the state's clean-air standards, and scientists have spent the past several months revising data and planning a significant weakening of the landmark regulation, The Chronicle has found. . . .

Mary Nichols, chairwoman of the California Air Resources Board, offered no explanation when The Chronicle questioned her about the diesel emissions miscalculation.

4 comments:

Overestimate fueled state's landmark diesel lawWyatt Buchanan, Chronicle Sacramento Bureau (revision J. Lefor)(10-08) 04:00 PDT Sacramento - -- California grossly miscalculated (lied about) pollution levels in a scientific analysis (Con-artist project) used to toughen the state's clean-air standards, and scientists (con artists) have spent the past several months revising data (falsified evidence) and planning a significant weakening (government control) of the landmark regulation, The Chronicle has found. The pollution estimate (fabrication of falsified evidence) in question was too high - by 340 percent, according to the California Air Resources Board, the state agency charged with researching and adopting air quality standards. The estimate (fabrication of falsified evidence) was a key part in the creation of a regulation adopted by the Air Resources Board (Bureaucracy for total Nazi like control over California) in 2007, a rule that forces businesses to cut diesel emissions by replacing or making costly upgrades to heavy-duty, diesel-fueled off-road vehicles used in construction and other industries. (The private sector jobs that was lost in California)The staff of the powerful and widely respected (Nazi Regime) Air Resources Board said the overestimate (extreme fabrication of falsified evidence) is largely due to the board (fake scientists) calculating emissions before the economy slumped (which they cause from the new ruling), which halted the use of many of the 150,000 diesel-exhaust-spewing vehicles in California. Independent researchers, (real scientists in the private sector) however, found huge overestimates (gianormously extreme fabrication of falsified evidence) in the air board's work on diesel emissions and attributed the flawed work to a faulty method of calculation (without the use of math) - not the economic downturn. (Which was cause from the evidence of gianormously extreme fabrication of falsified huge overestimates)

The overestimate, which comes after another bad calculation by the air board on diesel-related deaths that made headlines in 2009, prompted the board to suspend (lay down the hammer and sickle) the regulation this year while officials decided whether to weaken the rule.

Diesel Proposal Continued:On Thursday, after months of work, the air board and construction industry officials announced a proposal that includes delaying the start of the requirements until 2014 and exempting more vehicles from the rule. It would be a major scaling back of the rule if the air board approves it in a vote scheduled for December. The announcement was made as The Chronicle was preparing to publish this report, which had been in the works for several weeks.The setbacks in the air board's research - and the proposed softening of a landmark regulation - raise questions about the performance of the agency as it is in the midst of implementing the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (Absolute world power domination) - or AB32 (AWPD) as it is commonly called, one of the state's and the nation's most ambitious (criminal) environmental policies to date.AB32, which aims to reduce carbon emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2020, has come under intense political attack this year as the state prepares to elect a new governor. Critics cast the law as a jobs killer (REALLY?) because of the expenses to industry and businesses (loss of businesses) in conforming to new pollution regulations. Supporters say it will reinvigorate the state's economy and create thousands (ten) of new jobs in the emerging green sector. (Which doesn’t exist)Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman has promised (promises, promises) to suspend the law for at least a year, while Democrat Jerry Brown supports the law. California voters, meanwhile, will vote on Proposition 23, a November initiative to suspend AB32 (AWPD) until the unemployment rate - now at 12.4 percent in California - falls to 5.5 percent or less for a year. (Or everybody moves away because they have lost their job)

No answersMary Nichols, (Head of the Nazi Regime) chairwoman of the California Air Resources Board, offered no explanation when The Chronicle questioned her about the diesel emissions miscalculation. She was recently asked why the air board estimate of a nitrous oxide source was off by at least a factor of two - air board scientists (her personal paid con artists) have since revised their numbers, and data show the estimate was off by 340 percent. Nichols' response: "I can't answer that for you." (I don’t understand how math works, I just take the falsified evidence they create, increase it more, then pass it along until I get and estimate that I can use to achieve more power for my bureaucracy)Nichols was emphatic, though, when asked whether she has concerns about other scientific calculations made by air board scientists."No, no, no, no, no, no, no and no," (hail, hail, hail, hail, hail, hail) she said. Members of Nichols' board don't have an answer for the overestimate either, said Ron Roberts, an air board member who is a Republican supervisor in San Diego County and who voted in favor of the diesel regulation. "One of the hardest things about being (a Nazi) on the board is separating fact (falsified evidence) from political fancy, (gianormously extreme fabrication of falsified evidence)" Roberts said.

Roberts has been on the board for 15 years and said the agency has built a solid scientific reputation, but he said the board can't afford another mistake (evidence of corruption leaking out) and he still does not know what really happened. (He was getting medicated with medicinal marijuana and Prozac)"I think somehow some very poor decisions (flat out lies and corruption) have been made and politics have entered the picture too much," he said. "There are plenty of excuses but no explanations." (Except that a Nazi Regime wanted power over California)

The regulation - called the In-Use Off-Road Diesel Vehicle Regulation (Death to small business in Ca) - was adopted by the board in July 2007 to cut the amount of (business in CA) emissions released by diesel vehicles, with some exceptions, that aren't operated on regular roads and highways. Most of the affected vehicles are used in construction, mining and airport ground support and include such machinery as bulldozers, dump trucks, forklifts and cranes. (Businesses in the private sector)The construction industry had said the rule would cost construction businesses $10 billion to $12 billion in equipment purchases or upgrades required to make the machines run cleaner. (I smell a $10 billion lawsuit?)The regulation restricts the emission of two pollutants - nitrous oxide and particulate matter - to meet federal clean-air standards and to benefit public health. (The Nazi Regime)

Praise and criticismMost standards created by the board have been praised as groundbreaking in the fight against pollution, but recent errors have also made the board a target for criticism.One of the major recent problems was an air board estimate of premature deaths caused by particulate matter spewing from diesel engines. The first calculation (false evidence) found 18,000 deaths a year in the state had links to particulate matter. That has been revised down by nearly half.The revision was ordered after the board scientist (con artists) who oversaw that study was ousted as having faked his scientific credentials.Roberts and other board members were not told by Nichols that the scientist, Hien Tran, lied about earning a doctorate from UC Davis before they voted in favor of regulations based in part on his science (gianormously extreme fabrication of falsified evidence). That vote took place in December 2008.Nichols, who acknowledges she knew about the falsification prior to the vote, has apologized for not sharing that information with her fellow board members.Roberts called the spate of errors "a major black eye" for the board. He said he does not know why the process to fix them is taking longer than first expected.

Changing dataTop researchers at the air board said they are dealing with complex issues and that their jobs (of lying) have been made harder because the economic downturn has shut down some of the pollution-emitting machines that were in use in industries like construction and trucking.Todd Sax, chief of the board's mobile source analysis branch, said scientists are trying to keep up with changes in the economy to have the best pollution estimates and to ensure the state meets federal air-quality obligations."We've been trying to get the numbers right, and the recession continues to take hold," Sax said, adding that his branch is "constantly re-evaluating" its numbers.Their latest estimate for sources of nitrous oxide found that off-road vehicles are burning 228 million gallons of diesel fuel per year. The previous estimate was 1 billion gallons, which means the first estimate was 340 percent higher than the new calculation. Sax said roughly half of that is due to the recession but the other half is due to a revised method of calculation (née meni mingy mo) that focuses more directly on the amount of fuel sold instead of estimates about equipment use.The problem, and the revised counting method, came to light after Robert Harley, a UC Berkeley professor of environmental engineering, and a colleague at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory did their own evaluation, which was published in December in the journal Atmospheric Environment.

While air board officials and other defenders of the board's science point to the economy as a major factor in the overestimates, Harley found that prior to the recession the board's estimates of nitrous oxide were too high by a factor of 4.5 (450% off) and its estimate of particulate matter was off by a factor of 3.1, an extraordinarily high amount to be off scientifically. (even for fabricated bullshit)